The Challenge by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, ROI, RWS 1872-1945. Exhibited (as no. 95) at the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, Summer Exhibition, 1925, Signed in a cartouche: E.F. BRICKDALE; titled on an old label attached to the backboard watercolour with bodycolour and scratching-out. Dimensions: 68.5 x 140cm., 27 x 55in. Source of image and caption material: Sotheby's, by kind permission. Added by Jacqueline Banerjee
Sotheby's Catalogue Note
Depicting the issuing of a challenge against Death by the winged figure of Love, this watercolour represents the epitome of the last phase of Pre-Raphaelitism, of which Brickdale was one of the strongest and most talented exponents. The Challenge was purchased by Samuel Courtauld, the famous industrialist and art connoisseur. After seeing an exhibition of French art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1922 Courtauld began to collect Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and assembled an extensive collection including masterpieces, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Peach Blossom in the Crau by Van Gogh, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Manet and La Loge by Renoir.
Bibliography
"Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art/ Lot 26. Sotheby's. Web. 24 October 2022.
Created 24 October 2022